This is a record of my journey as a Muslim. I used to be Catholic and belonged to a missionary organisation. After my conversion, I sat on the board of a Muslim converts' organisation and specialised in da'wah programmes, convert management, interfaith issues and apostasy cases. I am an initiate of a Sufi order. As such, the articles and writings tend to cover these areas.
All the Arabic and graphics could not have been done without the help of my wife, Zafirah.

Saturday, 14 January 2017

The Original Suicide "Bombers"

بِسۡمِ ٱللهِ ٱلرَّحۡمَـٰنِ ٱلرَّحِيمِ

This idea of wanton killing is not a new
experience for Muslims. In the days when
the Khwarij sects proliferated, there was the Muhakkimiyyah. The Muhakkimiyyah were a group too small to
be a sect by themselves, but they had an impact outsized from their small
numbers. They used to go out with their
swords to the market places, and when the people gathered together unaware,
they would suddenly cry out, “Laa hukm
illa lillah!” “The Decision is with Allah Alone,” the slogan of the
original Khwarij when they rebelled against ‘Ali ibn Abi Thalib (k.w.).
They then attacked everybody in the viscinity; and they went on killing
people until they themselves were killed. They were like the Zealot sect of Judaism
during the Maccabean Revolt. The people
used to live in constant fear of them.

Imam Abu Husayn
al-Malati (r.a.) wrote, in his at-Tanbih wa ar Radd ‘ala Ahl al-Ahwa
wa al-Bid’ah, on the Muhakkimiyyah.
He said, “Those Muhakkimiyyah used to go out with their swords to
the market places. And when the innocent
people gathered together without being aware of it, they suddenly cried out, ‘Laa
hukm illa lillah!’ and lifted up their swords against anybody they happened
to overtake, and they went on killing people until they themselves were
killed. The people used to live in
constant fear of them; it caused a terrible commotion. But, fortunately, not
even one of them remains now on earth.”
This was translated by Dr. Toshihiko Izutsu (r.a.).